Chair of Music for Galway and board member of Galway Ensemble in Residence (ConTempo Quartet) Jane O'Leary will be performing in the National Concert Hall with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Robert Houlihan on Tuesday 29 January at 1.05pm.

Jane O'Leary. Photo: Mike Shaughnessy.

"The show at the moment is a performance of my music by the RTE National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. It's part of a series presented by RTE called 'Horizons'. For each concert a composer is asked to plan a concert programme for the National Symphony Orchestra featuring their own music and including works by other composers. I've chosen three of my own orchestral pieces, a work by my friend Hilary Tann--a Welsh composer living in New York State for many years, and a piece by American composer Joan Tower called 'Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman'. All of us have started out in one place and ended up in a completely different place, so there's a bit of a theme about 'journeys'.

One of my pieces is a new arrangement for orchestra of a work originally written for string quartet and piano and performed by ConTempo Quartet and myself during the 2007 Galway Arts Festival. It got a great response then and I hope it will work as well with a larger orchestra. I'll be playing the piano with the orchestra for this piece" said Jane.

This year has meant that Jane was travelling a lot, writing a lot, teaching, listening, playing and organising concerts. The highlight of the year for Jane was seeing a CD of her music come to completion. 'In the Stillness of Time' was launched last month on the Capstone label.

So what lies ahead in 2008? I'll be playing with Concorde ensemble in Ljubljana, Slovenia in May and hope to write new pieces for saxophone quartet and for ConTempo string quartet.

Jane who got involved with music at a young age. I started out learning piano, ended up writing as well as playing. A woman who is inspired by anything-natural sounds and movements (wind, rain, water, clouds). However she stresses, "first of all there must be stillness and silence."

Jane reflects back on one of her best performances with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra in Lincoln Centre, New York. "I was with old friends from the US in the audience and many of my Irish friends were playing in the orchestra?it brought together many strands of my life. The performance was brilliant! One of the great experiences performing abroad was in a palace in Venice with Concorde."

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